Coffered ceilings date back to antiquity. The inset square or polygonal panels may have a structural function, but their main purpose is decorative. Traces of painted decoration have been found on the wooden coffered ceilings of Greco-Roman public buildings. Stone coffered ceilings and vaults were most often found in temples and their cupolas, as in the Pantheon in Rome. The wooden coffered ceiling visible today in the Basilica of Constantine in Trier (Germany) is based on a 4th-century structure.
Mudejar art (12th-16th century), with its Islamic influence, is characterized by inlaid wooden coffered ceilings (artesonados) in Christian buildings in Aragon, Teruel, Castile, Toledo, Andalusia, Cordoba, Portugal and Ecuador. The Renaissance revived antique painted ceilings. Churches abounded with painted coffered ceilings, particularly in Italy, Rome, Florence and Pisa. In the first half of the 17th century, architectural coffered ceilings adorned the halls and ballrooms of private mansions.
What is a coffered ceiling?
A coffered ceiling has recessed compartments (called coffers, caissons, or lacunae), perhaps originally left by the criss-cross assembly of load-bearing beams and joists. The general view is reminiscent of a checkerboard pattern. Within this grid, the coffers can adopt a variety of geometric shapes, most often squares, rectangles and octagons.
The preferred medium for repetitive decoration, coffered ceilings in wood or stone were covered in gilding during the Baroque period throughout Central Europe, as in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, or in Como Cathedral (Italy, Lake District). The Neoclassical period favored coffered ceilings for their symmetry, and the late 19th century for their opulence.
Coffered ceilings are easy to paint in trompe-l'œil, adorning prestigious religious buildings such as the Jesuit Church in Vienna (Austria) or Our Lady of the Assumption in Gozo (Malta), as well as modest rural churches.
A miraculous story: a World War II shell passed through the coffered ceiling of the Basilica of Mosta (Malta) without exploding!
An educational function
In churches, the decorative function of coffered ceilings has sometimes been enriched by a specific educational function. Indeed, the distribution of the decoration in juxtaposed frames makes it possible to paint scenes to be read in a didactic order, offering a catechism in images. At Notre-Dame de Foy (Belgium), for instance, the iconography includes the 15 original mysteries of the Rosary. Like the stained-glass windows in the upper choir bays, illustrated coffered ceilings are not very legible from below, and the zealous devotee has to bend his neck to lift his soul...
